On feb 27, 2014 A Senate committee developed a revamped bill to require all private investigators in Colorado to acquire licenses. licensing will better protect clients against others who see it as a drag designed to kill small businesses and wipe-out part-time investigators. Denver.CbsLocalreports on the new bill would regulate private eyes.

Colorado lawmakers are hearing renewed debate over whether to join 44 other states in requiring private investigators to maintain state licenses.

Democratic Sen. Linda Newell has sponsored a measure that would mandate background checks and skills tests for people doing business as private eyes. This is the second year in a row Newell has raised such a proposal, saying the current system attracts unscrupulous investigators.

To protect consumers, the state requires plumbers, barbers and members of other trades to carry licenses, she told fellow lawmakers in a hearing last week. But “private investigation involves surveillance, investigation into people’s private lives, database searching,” she said.

Private detectives on both sides of the debate, meanwhile, vigorously argued their case.

Opponents said state licensure wouldn’t prevent dishonesty and fraud. Instead, they said, it would cause a hassle for private eyes who had done nothing wrong. Most of the state’s private detectives, they said, are retired law enforcement officers taking cases for small amounts of money who would close shop if required to pay license fees and pass a certification test.

“This cost, the rigmarole of going through it,” said Charles Evans, a private investigator from Castle Rock, is going to cause a lot of investigators “to fall out of the workforce.”

Ryan Johnston, a private investigator in Denver, supports regulation. He said it’s too easy to set up a private investigation business and access databases with sensitive information, including Social Security numbers.